Theft or “shrink” events of products or items are a common concern for many retail venues. Typically, these events are dynamic in that different people attempt to shoplift different items at different times and by different means. Although security personnel are often trained to recognize telltale signs that a shrink event might be in progress, recognition of such signs is highly dependent on the attentiveness of the security individuals and his or her ability to recognize these signs. Additionally, an individual may be unable to recognize a potential shrink event if that event is out of the individual's view. For example, this can sometimes result if the security officer is attending to a separate matter and not monitoring the video feed directed at the potential perpetrator. Likewise, if the security officer is monitoring what he or she believes to be a potential shrink event, a simultaneously occurring shrink event could go unnoticed. Moreover, even if a security officer's view of the perpetrator is not necessarily obstructed, new patterns associated with past and on-going shrink events may develop that would not necessarily be obvious to the loss-prevention personnel. As a result, shrink events may ultimately go unrecognized, leading to item loss.
Accordingly, there is a need for improved system and methods directed towards recognizing potential shrink events.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.
The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.